County-Level Distribution of Recent Foreign-Born Immigrants

Renuka Bhaskar, U.S. Census Bureau
Christopher Dick, U.S. Census Bureau

The geographic distribution of foreign-born migrants entering the United States each year is not constant over time. For the 2010 series of population estimates, the Census Bureau used information from Census 2000 to determine the county-level distribution of foreign-born immigrants to the United States. The distribution was based on the county of residence of the foreign-born population who entered the United States in the last five years. However, the Census 2000-based distribution does not reflect geographic shifts that have taken place over time. This poster describes results from an evaluation of the American Community Survey (ACS) 2005-2009 five-year file as a source of information on the county-level distribution of recent immigrants to the United States. It describes how the county distribution has changed from 2000 to 2005-2009 for recent foreign-born immigrants by demographic characteristics.